Breaking down an elk at night... in grizzly country...

[bow_dozer]

Keep the 10mm or spray on you and be ready.
We got a bull down two weeks ago with 15 min of light left, in heavy griz country. That's when you get to find out how good your buddy is with a knife With two people cutting, it should take less than 30 minutes to have it broke down and be on your way.
Coming in the next morning to finish packing, the nerves are always on high alert though.

 

[Bambistew]

I'm always amazed at how terrified people are of bears.

 

[cgasner1]

I know an outfitter in the Gros Ventre that takes the problem seriously... because you should! They don’t kill elk in the evening. Once there’s only 3 hours of shooting light left they are just locating elk for the next day. No hunting. You can talk all day about what you’d do if a grizzly comes crashing in out of the darkness. But that’s like saying you have a plan if you see lightning about to strike you.

Sounds like a good way to help give someone a experience if they hunted some dangerous country and a way to get off work early


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[cgasner1]

I know an outfitter in the Gros Ventre that takes the problem seriously... because you should! They don’t kill elk in the evening. Once there’s only 3 hours of shooting light left they are just locating elk for the next day. No hunting. You can talk all day about what you’d do if a grizzly comes crashing in out of the darkness. But that’s like saying you have a plan if you see lightning about to strike you.

Sounds like a good way to help give someone a experience if they hunted some dangerous country and a way to get off work early


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[Indian Summer]

Actually not. They have a really high success rate and kill some big bulls too. The bears there are just that bad. I agree with someone above who said the grizzlies in the southern 48 have worse attitudes than ones in Alaska. The bears up there seem to know who’s boss. Down here some apparently aren’t as sure.

 

[Headwatermike]

I've done this a bunch of times in pretty heavy grizzly country (sw MT). We've never had an issue but it is never very fun--I much prefer a morning kill. We make a fire when it's cold but otherwise we don't. I think I will in the future--it seems like a good idea in retrospect. I've never had to do the task alone. Being proficient with a knife helps a lot--myself and a partner can generally do the job in an hour or maybe a bit more with a bull. We just work with our heads on a swivel, sidearms at the ready, and talking a bit. We take what we can, sometimes the entire animal, and hang what is left in a visible location a short distance from the carcass for the follow-up.

The hike out with elk is more nerve-racking for me. It is hard to stay alert for miles under exhausting loads after such a long day. A couple of times I've come across carcasses on the way out that were covered by predators and once we were serenaded by a mountain lion screaming near by. One wounded elk that we tracked late into the night was attacked by a mountain lion while we followed it as told by the tracks. Once recovered we made short work of that one before heading down (that trip I was hunting with a buddy I call "Jonny the knife"). I don't worry too much about a lion but it adds to the degree of sketchiness.

The worst I've felt was going back to retrieve a knife I left the day after we packed one out. On the way back, hiking alone and following my exact route in a steep draw, I found a huge pile of fresh bear poo right in my path about 200 yards below the kill site. Happily my knife was below the kill site a bit where I had used it to collect a couple of ivories from a depredation kill. There was no question at that point that I was very near a feeding grizzly and it was nearly dark. I made great time getting back out after recovering my knife.

 

[AaronMColeman]

I can't find the comment to quote, but my favorite comment in here is about how you're in just as much danger during the day as during the night...the bear doesn't care. It's just your nerves are more shot at night.

 

[jog]

...The hike out with elk is more nerve-racking for me. It is hard to stay alert for miles under exhausting loads after such a long day. A couple of times I've come across carcasses on the way out that were covered by predators ...

That would be the perfect scenario for a bad encounter- walking up onto a claimed carcass you didn't know was there. I don't hunt in grizzly country so have no wisdom to offer, but the above would be something I would want to be super aware of. I am thinking of all the elk kills I have walked onto in my hunting career. Quite a few.

 

[AaronMColeman]

I'm always amazed at how terrified people are of bears.

I'm not. Not sure how the bears in Alaska are, but here in Wyoming they're mean. In fact, I was just talking with a friend this morning who's co-worker was bluff charged lastnight. It happens a lot. Enough to where I think twice about being in the dark by myself.

 

[wyosam]

Hunters definitely have a higher encounter rate, but is still fairly minuscule overall. There a a TON of people out hunting in the GYE and other areas where grizzlies live, and a very small number of incidents. Bluff charges are bears being bears (I’ve had a couple, I’m not discounting the ability of a bluff charge to ruin a nice pair of pants). As an ER nurse in bear country, I’d say be more afraid of four wheelers, horses, try not to slip and fall, don’t shoot yourself or others, and try to keep the sharp part of your knife off your own skin. Those are the big ones for injuries. I’ve seen a fair number of patients after bear encounters over the years, but it gets nowhere close to the number (including fatalities in the area that haven’t come to the ER) of the list above.

Millions of people without a lick of common sense, much less bear sense, visit the GYE every year, and the bears get a small handful a year. Seems like they are showing a lot of restraint for as thirsty for human blood as they are described by so many people.


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[ScreamingPotato]

Hunters definitely have a higher encounter rate, but is still fairly minuscule overall. There a a TON of people out hunting in the GYE and other areas where grizzlies live, and a very small number of incidents. Bluff charges are bears being bears (I’ve had a couple, I’m not discounting the ability of a bluff charge to ruin a nice pair of pants). As an ER nurse in bear country, I’d say be more afraid of four wheelers, horses, try not to slip and fall, don’t shoot yourself or others, and try to keep the sharp part of your knife off your own skin. Those are the big ones for injuries. I’ve seen a fair number of patients after bear encounters over the years, but it gets nowhere close to the number (including fatalities in the area that haven’t come to the ER) of the list above.

Millions of people without a lick of common sense, much less bear sense, visit the GYE every year, and the bears get a small handful a year. Seems like they are showing a lot of restraint for as thirsty for human blood as they are described by so many people.


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You guys just stink so they don't wanna eat you. I, however, most likely smell like blueberries and am very appetizing!

 

[kid44]

I'm always amazed at how terrified people are of bears.

I agree, if you read the hunting and gun forums most people think there is a bear behind every tree just waiting to attack them. But in the case of breaking down anything in grizzly country extra precaution should always be taken.
There is a true story about 2 guys who were skinning a moose, leaned their rifles against a tree and hung the handgun on a branch and started to work. A grizzly came in for a free meal and made things very difficult for the hunters, after a wild coupe of minutes they managed to kill the bear and both survived to tell the story.

 

[AaronMColeman]

I’ve been involved with 3 packouts this season in the dark in grizzly country. It’s nerve wracking but each experience makes it less so. Loads of bear track, saw in grizzly in the middle of the day 600yards away, had a few friends bluff charged this year. It’s real, it’s rare, theres not much we can do about them. My feeling is getting it all out at night is less risky than leaving it till morning.


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[Ralphie]

I know several and worked for one outfitter that wouldn’t hunt in the evenings. Not a bad strategy.

You aren’t going to hear a bear coming, unless things are really bad like what happened to the guide last fall in Wyoming. Noise isn’t going to deter a bear if he wants it. He knows you are there with or without AC/DC rocking just as he knows there’s an elk there. They may not come in but it’s not that the music is keeping him out.

Leaving clothing also isn’t going to work, if you’ve been there enough of your scent is there without your sweaty UA hanging there.

Get the job done, keep an eye out, keep your gun and or spray very handy.

Move the meat away from the rib cage to where you can see it from a distance. If you have horses tie them up around you and watch them. They’ll see it before you will.

If you come back and there’s a bear on it let him have it.

 

[AaronMColeman]

I know several and worked for one outfitter that wouldn’t hunt in the evenings. Not a bad strategy.

You aren’t going to hear a bear coming, unless things are really bad like what happened to the guide last fall in Wyoming. Noise isn’t going to deter a bear if he wants it. He knows you are there with or without AC/DC rocking just as he knows there’s an elk there. They may not come in but it’s not that the music is keeping him out.

Leaving clothing also isn’t going to work, if you’ve been there enough of your scent is there without your sweaty UA hanging there.

Get the job done, keep an eye out, keep your gun and or spray very handy.

Move the meat away from the rib cage to where you can see it from a distance. If you have horses tie them up around you and watch them. They’ll see it before you will.

If you come back and there’s a bear on it let him have it.

Honestly, this is probably the best strategy. But you lose half of the good movement times at sunrise and sunset. I agree 100%. It’s just hard to say “no” and it’s also really hard for many of us to get out in the mornings which leaves the options of hunt at night and hope for the best, or don’t hunt.


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[Redside]

Hunters definitely have a higher encounter rate, but is still fairly minuscule overall. There a a TON of people out hunting in the GYE and other areas where grizzlies live, and a very small number of incidents. Bluff charges are bears being bears (I’ve had a couple, I’m not discounting the ability of a bluff charge to ruin a nice pair of pants). As an ER nurse in bear country, I’d say be more afraid of four wheelers, horses, try not to slip and fall, don’t shoot yourself or others, and try to keep the sharp part of your knife off your own skin. Those are the big ones for injuries. I’ve seen a fair number of patients after bear encounters over the years, but it gets nowhere close to the number (including fatalities in the area that haven’t come to the ER) of the list above.

Millions of people without a lick of common sense, much less bear sense, visit the GYE every year, and the bears get a small handful a year. Seems like they are showing a lot of restraint for as thirsty for human blood as they are described by so many people.


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I agree. How many elk are killed in grizz country each year by hunters? How many bear attacks have you heard about on a fresh kill, one that you recovered soon after the shot? Your just playing the odds that you'll have it cut and away from the carcass before the bear gets there, and he will get there.

I've done a few solo, one at last light in grizz country. It's not fun because its always in the back of your mind, which is probably a good thing. As others have said, keep deterrent handy, be loud, be quick and move the meat at least a couple hundred yards away. I shuttle it as well a little ways at a time until it's far enough then hang what I can't carry. Make sure you can see it from a distance when you come back.